network configuration problem in ubuntu 9.10

[Nils Kassube]

Tony Arnold wrote:
> Tom H wrote:
Without attribution ...

> >> address 58.196.140.8
> >> netmask 255.255.255.0
> >> gateway 58.194.128.1
> >
> > You cannot have
> > address 58.196.140.8
> > netmask 255.255.255.0
> >
> > with
> > gateway 58.194.128.1
> 
> True. As your IP address is a class A address, I would expect the
> netmask to be 255.0.0.0

If you try "whois 58.196.140.8" you can see that the address range of 
that network is 58.196.0.0 - 58.197.255.255, i.e. it is a /15 network. 
The historical network class A is more or less obsolete [1]. For a /15 
network the netmask would be 255.254.0.0 _but_ we don't know anything 
about the internal subnet, which makes the netmask a wild guess on our 
side. If the OP got a netmask of 255.255.255.0 from the network admin, 
it is sure possible. But, like Tom H wrote, the gateway should be within 
the address range of the netmask. We only know that one of the three 
(address, gateway or netmask) is wrong.


Nils

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classless_Inter-Domain_Routing>